Ukhal Bandhan Leela Sthali Significance
Image 1: The Entrance Gate of Ukhal Bandhan Ashram, Mahavan Gokul.
The famous "Ukhal Bandhan Aashram" can be found on GPS at the following address: Gokul, Mahaaban, Mahaban Bangar, Uttar Pradesh 281305. This place is a small ancient temple located 10 Km away east of Mathura in Mahavan or Brihadvan, the largest forest of Vraj. The temple is surrounded by crop fields and is a very peaceful place with not much development giving it a feel of how this place would have been in past. This area is also known as Gokul, the place of cows.
Image 2: Signboard for Ukhal Bandhan Ashram.
This is the place where Mata Yashoda tied naughty Krishna to an ukhal ( grinding mortar made up of stone used in primitive Indian kitchens for grinding spices) after catching him stealing butter and feeding it to his friends and monkeys.
Video 1: Devotees bowing down to Transcendental Ukhal and lords footprints at Ukhal Bandhan ashram.
Lord Krishna spent his early childhood in this village. He killed many demons sent by his uncle Kamsa for killing him. He did many past times and left sweet memories for his devotees in this place to be cherished and worshipped later on.
Krishna live in Gokul with his father King Nanda and Queen Yashoda in his house named Nandabhavan which was spread in 7 Kms as reported by the priest of this temple.
Video2: Temple priest explaining the significance of the Ukhal Bandhan Leela main temple deities.
The Damodar Leela Past time
On the day of Deepawali, Mata Yashoda was churning butter for her beloved son Lord Krishna in Nanda Bhawan, but baby Krishna desired to feed mother's milk and so Mata had to leave the churning in the middle and feed him. When she was feeding him the milk which was boiling on a clay stove in Kitchen felt that he is not worthy of existing as Krishna did not choose to drink it. Therefore and came out of the pot on which it was boiling and tried to kill itself. When Mata Yashoda felt the smell of burning milk she put the baby Krishna aside and rushed to the kitchen to save the boiling milk. Lord Krishna did not like Mata Yashoda ignoring him for the boiling milk and out of anger he picked up a metal tool and broke the clay pot in which Mata was churning curd and ran away. When Mata Yashoda came out she found the broken clay pot and little white curd smeared footprints made by fleeing little Krishna. When she followed those footprints she reached another room where the butter pots were stored. There she found Krishna standing on an Ukhal and stealing butter from the pots hanging from the ceiling. She also found his thief army of gopas(cowherd boys) and some naughty monkeys. Angry Mata Yashoda scared everyone away and started chasing frightened Krishna. They reached outside the house running. White flowers fell from her hair and sweat drops rolled down her body as she ran. At last, by Krishna's mercy, she got hold of him. She took him to the same ukhal he used for stealing the butter that day and started to tie him with a rope but the rope fell short by two inches. She brought more ropes from around the house but again the joined rope also was two inches short. She ran several times to bring more and more rope from her house, neighbours' houses, and then the entire village but every time she was surprised to find that the rope always fell short by two inches. At last, she became hopelessly sad and tired and gave up. Krishna realising her mother's pain, and frustration by his mercy, allowed her mother to tie him up by helping her. This form of the lord is called Lord Damodar (Daam= Rope and Udar=Waist) After tying him up she left for doing other works and a little restless Krishna immediately started crawling with ukhal tied to his waist and reached the garden and started moving between twin trees of Yamal-Arjun. The ukhal stuck between the trees and when Krishna tried to pull it out, the trees fell with a huge sound liberating the souls of the trees which were originally sons of Kuber(The god of wealth), Nalkuver and Manigreev who were cursed by Sage Narad Muni for theirs indecency. They sang glories of the lord and flew away with joy. After hearing the sound of falling of huge trees, the villagers, gopis, gopas and family members reached the place and untied and embraced little Krishna with love.
Video 3: Devotees visiting Ukhal Bandhan Leela Sthali.
The Ulhal Bandhan Ashram has one main temple that has three main things, the historical ukhal, the footprints of the Lord on stone and the third stone which is said to have a point that is believed to be the centre of Vraj Dhaam.
Image 3: The three important stone deities in the main temple at ukhal Bandhan ashram.
Image 4: Temple priest pointing finger at the point on the stone which is the centre of entire Vraj Dham according to him.
The Ukhal seems very short in height. It is believed that the ukhal is sinking in the earth as kali yuga is progressing. This historical ukhal was a reincarnation of great devotee Kashyap Muni, for serving Lord in this transcendental pastime.
This ashram has many other small temples. One of them is the Mata Yashoda temple where she used to do Deepdaan(Lamp offering) while asking for a son to be born.
Image 5: Mata Yashoda Temple at Ukhal Bandhan Ashram
In this temple, you can see a stone lotus where Vasudev(Biological father of Lord Krishna) place Infant Krishna. Goddess Lakshmi placed a lotus below the infant to protect him. Later on, when infant Krishna moved to Mata Yashoda's bed, this lotus turned into stone form and stayed there forever.
Image 6: Stone Laxmi Lotus in Ukhal Bandhan ashram
Besides this Laxmi Lotus is a worshipable Swastika which is also reported to be existing since the same period.
Image 7: Swastika stone at Yashoda temple at Ukhal Bandhan Ashram
So, these were the most significant facts about this place. There are other temples also in this Ashram whose details I will add later on in this blog. Do visit this place for a transcendental experience of a lifetime and get the mercy of the most merciful Lord Damodar especially in the auspicious month of Karthik(Oct-Nov) which is the lord's favourite month. The entire Damodar Leela has been narrated in detail in chapters 9 and10 of the 10th Canto of Srimad Bhagavatam. The 11th Chapter has glories of the Lord in continuation. The Sanskrit verses can be recited here by clicking on this link Damodar Leela Katha(Sanskrit-Latin Verses). and here for Hindi दामोदर लीला कथा (संस्कृत छंद के साथ हिंदी अर्थ )
Devotees of Lord Damodar(Lord Krishna's form in which he has a rope tied to his waist) offer a lamp to him and sing the Damodarasktakam (A song with eight stanzas that glorify lord Damodar and his past time). Read Damodar Ashtakam here Shri Damodarastakam Lyrics (Sanskrit and English)
Hare Krishna
Radhey Radhey
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